DreamHack Valencia 2017 Results

18 July 2017 17:17

Several players and teams from a wide variety of eSports games reigned supreme at the recent DreamHack Valencia at Feria de Valencia. Held from Thursday the 13th to Sunday the 16th of July, the action didn’t disappoint as teams fought it out in CS:GO, Starcraft II, Hearthstone and more.

CS:GO

Ninjas in Pyjamas found themselves in Group B alongside Red Reserve, NRG eSports and Counter Logic Gaming, and the Swedish-based CS:GO outfit went all the way to take home $50,000 of the $100,000 prize pool. It was their first CS:GO championship title of the year, and they began proceedings with a 16-3 win over Red Reserve in the group stages followed by a 16-10 victory over Counter Logic Gaming. Their 2-0 group stage record set the tone for the rest of the tournament, finishing with a +19 Round Difference. 19-year-old Fredrik “REZ” Sterner led the way for Ninjas in Pyjamas in those opening matches, with a combined 49 kills and 117.7 average damage per round.

Having received a direct invite to the event, Ninjas only dropped one map for the duration of the tournament, a 16-8 reverse to Team EnVyUs in Inferno. However, they recovered to see off Team EnVyUs in the semi-finals with a 16-10 win in Cache and a 16-9 triumph on the Train map. The grand final saw Ninjas in Pyjamas face Red Reserve, who they had already beaten in the group stages. A 16-10 success in Mirage then led to a 16-2 demolition in the Cache map, ultimately proving to be the biggest winning margin of any team in Valencia.

After winning the IEM Oakland last November, Ninjas in Pyjamas then failed to qualify for December’s ELEAGUE Major and last month’s PGL Krakow Major. However, it’s great to see their team of Sterner, Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg, Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund, Richard "Xizt" Landström and William "draken" Sundin back to winning ways, and they thoroughly deserved their grand final victory.

Final Standings

The final standings are shown below, along with the distribution of the $100,00 prize pool:

1st place – Ninjas in Pyjamas - $50,000

2nd place – Red Reserve - $20,000

3rd place – Team EnVyUs - $10,000

4th place – Heroic - $10,000

5th place – KPI Gaming - $3,000

6th place – Counter Logic Gaming - $3,000

7th place – Misfits - $2,000

8th place – NRG Esports - $2,000

Starcraft 2

Mikolaj “Elazer” Ogonowski was crowned WCS StarCraft II champion at DreamHack Valencia, taking home $25,000 and 3,000 WCS points for his 1st place finish. The 19-year-old is without a professional team at present, but the Pole fought off competition from 80 other competitors to win his first premier tournament and lift the trophy, seeing off Team Liquid’s Jens “Snute” Aasgaard in the final. Aasgaard made the final after overcoming Juan Carlos "SpeCial" Tena Lopez in his semi-final. The tournament saw all 80 competitors battle it out in the Abyssal Reef, Ascension to Aiur, Blood Boil, Defender’s Landing, Odyssey, Proxima Station and Sequencer maps.

Ogonowski has already caught the eye over the past two years, finishing 3rd at the 2017 WCS Jönköping in July and at the 2016 WCS Global Playoffs and Finals last May. At DreamHack Valencia, he topped Group F with 2-0 victories over both Julian "Lambo" Brosig and Jarod "JonSnow" George. He then beat Ke "Has" Yu Feng 3-1 in the best-of-five Round 16, saw off Artur "Nerchio" Bloch 3-1 in the quarter-finals and Bang "TRUE" Tae Soo in the semi-finals to set up his sensational best-of-seven 4-3 grand final victory over Aasgaard.

Final Standings

The final standings for the top 10 of the 80 competitors are shown below, along with some of the distribution from the $100,000 prize pool, WCS Circuit Points and the player’s teams:

Hearthstone

Spaniard Hariseldon was named Hearthstone Grand Prix champion in his own country after a hard-fought 3-2 victory over MnM Gaming’s Ben ‘xl3en’ Chapman in the grand final. In one of the biggest tournaments of the year, 16 players made it through to the single-elimination stage and Hariseldon was awarded $7,500 and 15 HCT points for his victory.

Fourteen of the overall decks proved to be Druid, with 13 from Shaman, 12 from Paladin, 9 from Warrior, 8 Mage, 5 Rogue and 1 Priest. Patches the Pirate proved to be the most popular legendry, present in 26 of 62 decks. The Cuator was also popular, appearing in 18 decks.

Final Standings

The top six players are shown below, along with their share of the $25,000 prize pool and number of HCT points: